Giant heroin spoon art is moved again, to drugmaker's gates

FILE - In this Oct. 26, 2018, file photo, an 11-foot, 800-pound sculpture of a burnt spoon, meant to symbolize opioid use, created by Domenic Esposito, of Westwood, Mass., is briefly displayed in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston. The Massachusetts-based artist has moved his giant heroin spoon sculpture to a Rhode Island drugmaker's office to protest the opioid overdose crisis. Esposito and a partner placed the sculpture at the front gates of Rhodes Pharmaceuticals in Coventry, R.I., on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Bob Salsberg, File)

February 07, 2019 - 12:01 PM

COVENTRY, R.I. - An artist has moved his giant sculpture of a burnt spoon to a Rhode Island drugmaker's office to protest the opioid crisis.

The Providence Journal reports that 48-year-old Domenic Esposito, of Westwood, Massachusetts, and a partner placed the nearly 11-foot-long, 800-pound (3-meter-long, 360-kilogram) spoon at the front gates of Rhodes Pharmaceuticals in Coventry on Thursday.

Esposito, whose brother has struggled with addiction, says his sculpture is about "exposing this web of influence that big pharma has had on us."

A spokesman for the company could not be reached Thursday.

Esposito has previously taken the spoon to Purdue Pharma's Stamford, Connecticut, headquarters and to the Massachusetts Statehouse as a gift to state Attorney General Maura Healey.

He says he may engrave the names of people who died of overdoses on future spoons.